Cynfawr
by Ferahgo the Assassin
Summary: During a Roman invasion of Britain, a Briton is imprisoned by the Romans. He must escape from prison and find a way to reunite his family, deciding on whether to fight back against the Romans.
1. Arrested

**A/N: My first Rome: Total War story. I've been very interested in writing one and so decided to try it out. Enjoy and please review.**

CYNFAWR

Prologue

43 AD

Cynfawr watched the Romans march by his small farm, eyes filled with hatred against them. They had marched from their newly established fort of Londinium and were heading west to try to combat some guerilla fighters. They were Catuvellauni if his memory served him well enough. Cynfawr wished his fellow Britons the best of luck. They would need it. The Romans had quickly eliminated any resistance to them after they had invaded.

The clinking of their armor and the harsh sounds that they called a language filled his ears. The sound was enough to drive a man mad. It almost made Cynfawr mad enough to grab his sword and charge at the column of soldiers, hacking and stabbing. He told himself to stay his hand, but even so, he felt his hand inching towards his sword until his wife, Breda, put a hand on his shoulder.

"Don't do it," she told him. "Wipe those thoughts out of your mind." Cynfawr shook his head a little to show his wife that he was following her request. He turned around and stepped back into his house, shutting the door and shutting out the noise of the legionnaires.

"Is it the Romans, father?" asked his oldest son, Cataractus.

"Yes, it is," replied Cynfawr.

"Why don't we ambush them near the creek," suggested Cataractus.

Cynfawr almost answered when his second son, Llewelyn, cut him off, "Cataractus, why do you always want to kill the Romans. Now that they are here and have shown their power, wouldn't it be just as good for us if we help them as much as we can."

"You're a fool, Llewelyn," said Cataractus.

"Hush, both of you," Cynfawr said, sensing a fight coming on. "We won't fight the Romans and we won't deal with them." Cataractus, always the hot headed one, seemed about to say something else, but was interrupted by a knock on their door.

Cynfawr stood up and opened and came face to face with a Roman soldier.

"We, as your conquerers, are taking some of your cattle for our soldiers," he said in Cynfawr's language, although with great difficulty but with great arrogance.

"No, you can't do that," Cynfawr replied, even though he knew how stupid he sounded.

"Well, Emperor Claudius has given us the rite to and, as you can already see, we are making good on this order," said the Roman. Cynfawr peered around him and saw several more legionnaires leading his cattle out of their enclosure. The Roman barked some orders in his language and they began taking Cynfawr's chickens and most of his other livestock.

Cynfawr clenched his fists and without thinking, struck the Roman in the face. He fell flat on his back with a bloody nose. Cynfawr then leaped on top of the Roman and began pummeling him until several of the legionnaires that had been taking his livestock joined in to help their countryman.

They beat Cynfawr until he quit attacking the Roman. Then they grabbed him and pulled him back.

The Roman said something in his language and immediately began lighting torches. A light mist began to fall, so the Romans began to hurry with their work.

"What are you doing?" asked Cynfawr.

"You are apparently a rebel and we are doing our duty. You will be taken prisoner to Londinium and we will keep your wife, children, and livestock. Maybe you will be allowed to live, but your lands now belong to the Emperor," replied the Roman, matter-of-factly. Cynfawr struggled in vain against his holders as he watched them put his house to the torch. He watched as they pulled his family out of the house. Breda looked at him, wailing in fear, tears filling her eyes. Cynfawr tried to raise his hands out to her, but he was punched in the face by his captors.

This hit seemed to do more damage to him than all of the other hits that he had received. Blackness began to fill his vision. The last things his eyes saw were his two sons following their mother. Llewelyn walking calmly, seeming content with being held captive, Cataractus struggling against the Roman holding him. He turned to Cynfawr and cried, "I will rescue you, father. I'll escape and then return for you." Then Cataractus was silenced by a back hand to his face.

Cynfawr welcomed the inky blackness that came next.

**A/N: The next chapter will probably be written in about two weeks, so I'm sorry for the long wait to come.**


	2. Prison

**A/N: Sorry for the long wait. Please review.**

Chapter 1

Prison

Cynfawr awoke with a pounding headache. He opened his eyes and instantly thought he was blind. Everything around him was as dark as night. Cynfawr groped around in the darkness until he saw the light of a torch and he slumped down in relief.

The guard carrying the torch waved it around in front of Cynfawr's cell to see how he was doing and then walked off on his rounds again. When the guard left, Cynfawr started to crawl around his cell to see how much room he had. It wasn't much, only enough to fully stretch out with his feet touching one wall and his head another.

A small cot lay beside the wall as did a small bucket. Luckily, Cynfawr didn't feel the need to relieve himself yet. He sat down on the cot and tapped his fingers together, something he always did when he was deep in thought.

The last image he had of his family kept playing again and again in his mind. He realized how stupid he was to let his anger control him like it had, but he still realized that if he saw that Roman again he would finish what he had started and kill him.

Then he felt his person to see what the Romans had left him. Nothing but his clothes. They had taken his sword and knife as well as any other valuables. Cynfawr tried to think of something to do, but the idea eluded him. He laid down on his cot, back to the wall, and fell asleep, deep in thought.

Cynfawr didn't know how long he slept before he was awakened by the sound of keys rattling at his cell door. He quickly sat up and faced the person that was opening his cell.

The person was a Briton, a slave maybe, and he said to Cynfawr, "The magistrate wishes to see you, to tell you when your trial is going to be." Cynfawr nodded and stood up, following the Briton down a passageway and up a small set of steps. The pair stepped out into the sunlight, Cynfawr placing his hand over his eyes to block out the sun. The Briton guided him through a courtyard and into a wooden building, the biggest building that Cynfawr could see.

"The Romans built this place up quickly when they came didn't they?" Cynfawr asked the Briton, who ignored him. Seeing that there was no chance of conversation, Cynfawr kept his mouth closed as he was led into the building, whose door was flanked by two soldiers. They said something to the Briton in Latin and the Briton replied back to them. They let the pair into the building and came into a small room.

A man sat behind a desk. He said something to the Briton and then the Briton turned to Cynfawr.

"Go through those double-doors there. The magistrate will see you in there," he said and then went into another room of the building. Cynfawr walked up to the doors and opened them.

The room that he stepped into was lavishly adorned; a luxurious rug lay on the floor, a fire burned in the fireplace, and momentos from many parts of the known world were held on shelves. The magistrate sat at a desk covered in parchments with writing on them. There were two soldiers in the room as well, whose hands inched ever closer to their swords when Cynfawr walked in.

The magistrate looked up from his writings and stared at Cynfawr. Cynfawr stared back.

"I am Amulius Laevinus, magistrate of Londinium and the conquered areas of Britannia. You are Cynfawr, I presume. The rebel that was apprehended a few miles west of Londinium," said the magistrate.

"Yes, I am that man," Cynfawr replied.

"Tell me how this happened to you. It must be recorded," said Amulius, pointing at the papers. Cynfawr began relating the tale of what the Romans had done, Laevinus interjecting a few comments and questions of his own. All in all, it took only about ten minutes for Cynfawr to tell what had happened.

"Hmm," said Amulius to himself. "Your only offense that I can see is the assault of a Roman soldier. This, by imperial law, orders me to have you killed in whatever way I deem necessary."

Cynfawr just grunted in response.

"I really do not wish to do this. I go against the general feeling of most Romans. Killing you Britons whenever you do something just makes you more likely to fight back," said Amulius, "but I must follow the law. You shall be put to death a week hence. May whatever gods you follow grant you peace until and after that day." The doors behind Cynfawr opened and the Briton stepped through. Amulius spoke to him in Latin and then the Briton escorted Cynfawr back to his cell.

The Briton relocked the door and said, "I will be bringing your food and water until your alotted week is up." Cynfawr grunted to show that he had heard and slumped down onto his cot when the Briton left.

As he lay down on the cot, tears came unbidden to his eyes. Those few punches had landed him in prison, lost him his family, his life, and still there was nothing he could do about it. He even felt bad about weeping for himself.

Even still, a glimmer of hope shined through his weeping. Cataractus had promised to escape to free him. It was a long shot, Cynfawr knew that, but Cataractus had always been resourceful and Cataractus had never gone back against a vow. Maybe he could succeed in getting him out. Cynfawr vowed that he would not give up until the end of the week when he was put to death. He would wait for Cataractus. It was all he could do, no matter how impossible.


	3. Escape

**A/N: Please review.**

Chapter 2

Escape

It was the night before he was to be executed and Cynfawr still couldn't believe that Cataractus had abandoned him. To Cynfawr, the idea was just unthinkable.

The guard that brought him his food came walking down the stone steps to Cynfawr's cell. Since Cynfawr couldn't speak Latin neither spoke to each other. The guard just unlocked the cell, placed the usual meat and water on the floor, relocked the cell, and then left.

Cynfawr moved slowly forward and ate the meat. He had been eating it for the past week and still couldn't figure out what it was. Probably the oldest animal that the Romans could find, figuring the meat was stringy and fatty. He ate it anyway, though and drank the water.

Then he crawled back over to his pallet and laid down. As he lay there, his eyes slowly closed and he fell asleep.

* * *

The noise woke him. It was the sound of someone moving stealthily. Then the whispered word of, "Father?"

Cynfawr immediately sat up on his pallet and looked at his cell door. A figured knelt there.

"Father is that you?" asked the person again.

"If your name is Cataractus then I'm your father," replied Cynfawr. The person snorted, but Cynfawr heard the jangling of keys as the cell door was opened. Cynfawr was finally able to make out that his rescuer was indeed Cataractus.

Cataractus smiled. "Never thought you'd see me again, huh?"

"I'm glad you came when you did," replied Cynfawr. "Tonight was my last night on this Earth." Both embraced each other for a few seconds and then quickly separated.

"Well, let's get out of here, then," said Cataractus, handing his father a gladius. Cataractus himself drew one of the shortswords himself from a scabbard at his belt.

Cynfawr crept behind Cataractus. Before they reached the entrance to the guard room, Cynfawr asked, "What about the guard?"

"He's indisposed at the moment," replied Cataractus. As they crept through the guard room, Cynfawr looked to the table that the guard usually sat at. The man was slumped over on the desk as if sleeping, but the torchlight made the pool of blood around the man's head glisten.

The next room was just the entrance to the prisons. Cataractus quietly opened the door and him and his father slipped out of the prison. Cynfawr closed the door behind them.

From there they hid in the shadows until Cataractus stopped Cynfawr.

"Where is everyone?" asked Cynfawr.

"I've been in the city for about a day. Apparently there's some sort of curfew. Only soldiers are allowed out after dark," replied Cataractus.

"How'd you get in?" Cynfawr asked.

"I walked in through the gate," replied Cataractus smartly. Cynfawr popped the boy on the back of his head. "I've already made plans for us to get out. There's a rope that I've tied to one portion of the wall. We'll climb up it and then climb down the other side of the wall. After that it's just running until we reach the forest."

"Sounds good to me as long as we don't meet any guards," Cynfawr said. Cataractus just nodded and made a sign for his father to be quiet. Just then, a guard walked into their sight, holding a torch. The guard seemed to look around for a few minutes and then went off again on his rounds.

"I've made sure to memorize some of the patrols through the city," said Cataractus.

"I didn't know my son was this smart," Cynfawr said to himself and to Cataractus, who just chuckled. Then Cataractus began moving again, this time towards one section of the wall on the western side of the town.

When they reached it, Cataractus turned to his father. "I'll go up first and make sure the area is secure," he said. Cynfawr nodded, trusting his son's judgement and watched as Cataractus ascended the rope, climbing up the wall. When Cataractus reached the top, he tugged on the rope, telling Cynfawr it was safe. Cynfawr began to climb up the rope, feeling the burn begin in his arms. The feeling reminded him just how old he was getting.

Still, he managed to reach the top, and Cataractus offered a hand to help his father up.

"You go down first," Cataractus said to his father as he untied the rope from the city-side of the wall and retied it to the other side. Cynfawr did as his son bid him and quickly scrambled down the rope. He tugged on just as Cataractus had and then heard the thing that he didn't want to hear.

"Vos Briton, subsisto vox illic!" a Roman yelled. Neither Cynfawr nor Cataractus knew what it meant, but Cynfawr hoped his son could get down the wall before drawing more attention. Then Cynfawr heard a scream and saw his son moving fast down the rope.

"Let's move father!" yelled Cataractus and both took off running towards the forest. Behind them, they could hear more Romans shouting and heard the gate begin to creak open, but by that time they had made it into the forest and the safety of its dense undergrowth.

"I know of a clearing that's safe until morning," Cataractus said and took the lead. In about thirty minutes the pair reached the clearing. Cataractus took first watch and promised to wake his father up in a few hours.

Cynfawr laid back and stared through the trees at the stars. He was free, but not totally. As long as they were still in reach of the Romans, he would be hunted like an animal. He had assaulted a Roman officer and now his son had murdered a soldier.

But that was something to look forward to in the morning, so Cynfawr closed his eyes and fell asleep.

**A/N: The statement that the Roman said was You, Briton, stop right there. **


End file.
